Sie sind auf Seite 1von 56

Unit 8: Ethics and Fair

Treatment in HRM
Ethics and Fair Treatment
•What is ethics?
•What is meant by ethical behavior?
•What is the role of HR management in practicing
ethics in organizations?
•What are the important factors that shape ethical
behavior at work?
•What is fair treatment?
•Why employees should be treated fairly?
•How HR management can influence ethical
behavior at work?
•How to manage dismissals?
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Ethics:
• The discipline dealing with what is good
and bad, or right and wrong, or with
moral duty and obligation.
• The principles of conduct governing an
individual or a group.
• Standards/codes of conduct
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Ethics and HRM:
Issue-
• Need for institutionalizing ethical behavior by
educating and influencing CEOs to make ethics
a priority
Approach-
• Design and implement ethics programs to
educate employees
• Ethics programs should advocate for ethical
commitment, vision, behavior, achievement,
and courage
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Ethics and HRM:
Some application examples-
•Workplace safety
•Employee records security
•Employee theft
•Affirmative action
•Comparable work
•Employee privacy
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Ethical decisions:
Normative judgment
Morality (society’s accepted standards and
behaviors)
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Ethics and law:
•Laws not the best guide about ethical
behavior
•Some behaviors are ethical but not legal
•Some behaviors are legal but not ethical
•Managerial dilemma?
•Some examples- leave during peak
performance time, greasing (gifts) other
organizations for favor in business etc
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Ethics, fair treatment and justice:
Research finding-
To the extent that employees believed that
they were treated fairly, they reported less
unethical behavior in the organizations
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Ethics, fair treatment and justice:
What is fair treatment?
•Appreciation of good work
•Trust
•Respect
•Grievance handling
•Transparency
•Truth
•Participation
•Cooperation
•Congenial work environment
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Why employees should be treated fairly?
•For practicing dignity and respect
•For enhancing employee commitment,
satisfaction
•For increasing credibility of job, leaders
•For practicing procedural and distributive justice
(equity theory)
•For exercising rights and fairness (personal,
organizational)
•For institutionalizing disciplinary and discharge
procedures (legal requirements)
Ethics and Fair Treatment
What shapes ethical behavior?
Research findings-
•Ethical behaviors start with moral awareness
(Does the person even recognize that a moral
issue exists in the situation?)
•Managers can do a lot to influence employee
ethics by carefully cultivating the right norms,
leadership, reward systems, and culture.
•Ethics slide when people undergo “moral
disengagement”. Doing so frees them from the
guilt that would normally go with violating one’s
ethical standards.
Ethics and Fair Treatment
What shapes ethical behavior?
Research findings-
•The most powerful morality comes from
within-self identity- if behavior not matched
with this self-identity- psychological discomfort
•Beware of the seductive power of unmet goal
•Offering rewards for ethical behavior can
backfire- doing so might undermine the
intrinsic value of ethical behavior
Ethics and Fair Treatment
What shapes ethical behavior?
Research findings-
•Ethical behavior and non-ethical behavior should be
discriminated, eg, promoting someone who got a big
sale through devious means, unethical behaviors
should be punished/disciplined
•The degree to which employees openly talk about
ethics is a good predictor of ethical conduct,
conversely, organizations characterized by ‘moral
muteness’ suffer more ethically problematic behavior
•People tend to alter their ‘moral compasses’ when
they join organizations. They uncritically equate ‘what’s
best for this organization/ team/ department?’, with
‘what’s the right thing to do?’
Ethics and Fair Treatment
What shapes ethical behavior?
Factors-
•Person
•Organization
•Boss
•Organization culture
•Ethics policies and codes
Ethics and Fair Treatment
What shapes ethical behavior?
Factors-
•Person
•Organization
•Boss
•Organization culture
•Ethics policies and codes
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Person:
Age- older people make more ethical
decisions
Gender?
Family background?
Values/ principles/ attitudes?
Personality- assertiveness vs submissive?
Personal aspirations?
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Organization:
•Vision/ mission/ objectives/ targets
•Rules/ policies
•HR practices
•Leadership
•Working conditions
(schedule pressure, aggressive business
objectives, helping the company survive,
advancing the career interest of boss, peer
pressure, resisting competitive threats, saving
jobs, advancing own career or financial interests)
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Boss:
•Tell staff to do whatever is necessary to achieve
results
•Shy away from problematic issues, decision
dilemmas
•Expect abidance of rule by subordinates (though
not practicing by self- above the rule attitude)
•Overload top performers to ensure that work
gets done
•Look the other way when wrongdoing occurs
•Take credit for others’ work or shift blame
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Organization culture:
Characteristic values, traditions, and
behaviors a company’s employees share.
•Written rules
•Patterns of behavior
•Office layouts, symbols, artifacts
•Organizational structure
•Dress codes
•Language used
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Organization culture:
How to ensure ethical culture in organization?
•Clarify expectations- eg, Johnson and Johnson-
“We believe our first responsibility is to the
doctors, nurses and patients, to mothers and
fathers and all others who use our products and
services”
•Use signs and symbols- display ethical
behaviors, use symbols reflecting ethics of the
organization
•Provide physical support- firm’s plan, appraisal
system, incentive systems, disciplinary
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Ethics policies and codes:
•Examples-
IBM:
“No IBM employee, or any other member ……
to gain a business advantage” page 256
Enron:
“Respect , integrity, communication and
excellence”
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Ethics policies and codes:
Quick test:
Questions to ask when facing ethical dilemma:
•Is the action legal?
•Is it right?
•Who will your actions affect?
•Does it fit organization’s values?
•How will it ‘feel’ afterward?
•How will it look in the newspaper?
•Will it reflect poorly in the company?
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Ethics policies and codes:
Enforcement-
Research finding- strong statements by
managers may reduce the risk of legal and
ethical violations by their work forces, but
enforcement of standards has the greatest
impact
Ethics audit- conflicts of interest, giving and
receiving gifts, employee discrimination,
access to company information
Practices- Chief Ethics Officer
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Ethics, fair treatment, and HRM:
•Strategy and HR
•Staffing and selection
•Training
•Improving productivity throughHRIS
•Performance appraisal
•Reward and disciplinary systems
•Building two-way communication
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Ethics, fair treatment, and HRM:
Strategy and HR-
Corporate strategy, functional strategy, HR
strategy – all should be aligned
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Staffing and selection:
•Hiring more ethical people
• Background checks
• Selection predictors including behavior
assessments (eg, interview, WST etc)
• Demonstrating selection process being fair (pre-
determined rules, procedures- for perception of
ethical behavior by the applicants)
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Training:
•Ethics training
• How to recognize ethical dilemma
• How to use codes of conduct to resolve
problems
• How to use HR functions in ethical ways
• Moral underpinnings of the ethical choice
• Company’s commitment to integrity
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Improving productivity through HRIS:
•Web-based programs
• for training, reinforcing, and monitoring-
organization specific ethics as well as general
business ethics
• For making people aware of what is happening
in industry regarding ethics (ethics newsletters)
• Online assistance
• Company policies, ethics handbooks
• Videos
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Performance appraisal:
•Accuracy and honesty, objectivity and
fairness – signaling fairness
•Clear standards of performance and
appraisal
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Reward and disciplinary systems:
•Unethical behavior should be penalized,
ethical behavior should be appreciated
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Building two-way communication:
For allowing employees perceive fairness
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Three actions for perceived fairness (3Es):
•Engagement: Involving individuals in the
decisions that affect them by asking for their
input and allowing them to refute the merits of
one another’s ideas and assumptions
•Explanation: Ensuring that everyone involved
and affected understands why final decisions are
made as they are, and the thinking that underlies
the decisions, and
•Expectation clarity: Making sure everyone
knows up front by what standards they will be
judged and the penalties
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Steps to take (for two-way-communication):
•Make sure :
• your employees can tell you what they think
• You tell them what you expect
• You listen to their concerns
• You keep them informed
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Employee discipline and privacy:
Why discipline?
To encourage employees to behave sensibly
(adhering to rules and regulations) at work
When to discipline?
When someone violates one of the rules or
regulations
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Three pillars of fair and just penalties:
•Rules -to inform ahead of time about what is
accepted/not accepted, during orientation
itself
•Penalties- principle of progressive penalty
ranging from oral warning to suspension,
severity depending on type and frequency of
offense
•Appeals process-to ensure fair action by
supervisor
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Discipline without punishment (non-punitive):
Traditional discipline-
Flaws:
• Residue of ill-will
• Short-term compliance
Non-punitive discipline-
Strengths:
• Avoids flaws of traditional discipline by
gaining employee’s acceptance of rules and by
reducing punitive nature of the discipline itself
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Steps:
1. Issue an oral reminder (to encourage
employee to solve problem)
2. If repeated, issue a formal written reminder,
placing a copy in personal file of employee
(for documentation), follow-up with a
discussion without any threats
3. Give a paid 1-day “decision-making leave”,
record in his/her personal file (paid
suspension)
4. If corrected, erase that record from personal
file, if not, increase the severity
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Criminal offenses- immediate dismissal
Managers can skip the steps viewing the
complexity and frequency of offense
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Electronic employee privacy:
Managing and monitoring company email
Monitoring employees social networks
Monitoring phone calls
Ethical?
Inform them about the organization policy in
advance- all emails and communications done
using organization resources- not
persona/private/confidential
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Managing dismissals:
•Strongest disciplinary action
•Must be fair, just and warranted
•Immediate dismissals- humane
•Should be last resort (try to avoid as much)
• Avoid bad hiring
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Managing dismissals:
•Termination at will
• The employee can resign for any reason, at will
• Employer can dismiss an employee for any
reason, at will
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Managing dismissals:
•Termination at will exceptions
• Statutory exceptions- discharging employees
based on race, ethnicity, religion, sex, or
national origin
• Common law exceptions
• Public policy exceptions- discharging
employees for not breaking the law
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Managing dismissals:
•Grounds for dismissal
• Unsatisfactory performance
• Misconduct
• Lack of qualifications for the job
• Changed requirements (or elimination of job)
• Insubordination (direct disregard of the boss’s
authority, disobedience, refusal to obey orders
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Managing dismissals:
•Avoiding wrongful discharge suits:
(employers’ reluctance to terminate disruptive
employees for fear of lawsuits)
•When wrongful discharge occurs?
When an employee’s dismissal does not
comply with the law or with the contractual
arrangement
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Managing dismissals:
•Avoiding wrongful discharge suits:
Procedural steps:
Two prong strategy-
• lay the ground work,
• use practices that help ensure fairness
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Lay the ground work:
• Have applicants sign the employment
application. It should contain a statement
that employment is for no fix-term and that
employer can terminate at any time
• Review your employee manual and delete
statements that could prejudice your
defense, such as, “employees can be
terminated only for just cause”
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Lay the ground work:
•Have written rules listing infractions that may
require discipline and discharge
•If a rule is broken, get the worker’s side of the story
in front of witnesses, and preferably get it signed
•Be sure that employees get a written appraisal at
least annually. If an employee shows evidence of
incompetence, give that person a warning and an
opportunity to improve
•Keep careful confidential records of all actions such
as employee appraisals, warnings or notices, and so
on
•Consider his or her legal rights
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Lay the ground work:
• use practices that help ensure fairness
• Severance pay (usually practiced for downsizing
dismissals, not for poor performance)
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Personal supervisory liability:
Steps:
• Follow company policies and procedures
• Administer the discipline in a manner that does
not add to the emotional hardship on the
employee (let the employee present his/her side
of story, don’t dismiss publicly, don’t have
handover arrangements in public)
• Do not act in anger (avoid personalizing the
issue which undermines objectivity)
• Utilize HR department for advice regarding how
to handle difficult disciplinary matters
Ethics and Fair Treatment
Termination interview:
1. Plan the interview carefully
• Make sure the employee keeps the appointment
time
• Allow 10 minutes time as sufficient for interview
• Use a neutral site, not your own office
• Have employee agreements and a release
announcement prepared in advance
• Be available at a time after the interview in case
questions or problems arise
• Have phone numbers ready for medical or security
emergencies
Ethics and Fair Treatment
– Termination interview:
2. Get to the point:
•Make the person comfortable upon arrival
•Inform about the decision
3. Describe the situation:
•Give specific reasons for termination, inform
that the decision is final and irrevocable
4. Listen (make the person talk freely, listen
calmly)
Ethics and Fair Treatment
– Termination interview:
5. Review the severance package:
•Describe the payments, benefits, access to
office support people
•Do not promise any payments accept for
included in severance package
6. Identify the next step:
•Explain where the person can go for further
action (benefits processing, hand-over etc)
Ethics and Fair Treatment
– Outplacement counseling:
– An arrangement to provide terminated
employee with
• Career planning and job search skills
• Counseling
• Support for severance pay process
Ethics and Fair Treatment
– Exit interview:
– HR department responsible
– Aim- to elicit information that might give the
employer a better insight into what is right- or
wrong- about the company
– General questions asked:
• Why did you join the company?
• Was the job presented correctly?
• Why did you decide to leave?
• What organizational issues you find need
attention of management?
Ethics and Fair Treatment
– Lay offs and plant closing law
– Adjusting to downsizings and mergers
Questions???

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen